The war against terrorism
is boosting the European far-Right
- special report from the Institute of Race RelationsPress release: Embargo: 24 April 2002.
For further information please contact Liz Fekete on: 020-7833
2010/ 00 44 207 833 2010 (Int)

The war against terrorism is boosting the European far-Right

The EU, in following the US approach to fighting terrorism,
is seriously undermining its own democratic traditions and creating
an explosive racism.

This is the damming verdict of the Institute of Race Relations,
which presents its findings in a new report published today.
Racism: the hidden cost of September 11 represents the first
attempt to examine the impact of September 11, and the subsequent
war against terrorism, on race relations across Europe.

And it details who is most affected by the denial of civil
liberties - and how.

Asylum seekers, foreigners (principally Arabs) and Europe's
Muslim minorities are the biggest losers. European anti-terrorist
laws, adopted post- September 11, have bred a culture of suspicion
in which anyone of Middle-Eastern appearance is treated as an
'enemy alien'. Meanwhile, the far-Right and anti-immigrant parties
have used September 11 for electoral gain - demonising Islam
and its cultural and religious practices.

'But the extreme-Right is not alone in prioritising these
themes', says author Liz Fekete. 'Government policies on race
relations and integration have changed dramatically since September
11. In fact we are entering a new era in domestic race policy,
where old, discredited ideas of monoculturalism and assimilation
into the dominant White, European Christian culture are once
again in the ascendant. And the hidden cost of September 11 is
an
unashamed racism.'